# Packetry

> Great Scott Gadgets' USB 2.0 protocol analysis application for live capture with the Cynthion analyzer or for exploring previously captured traffic, working from physical-layer packet data at High, Full and Low Speed. Its GTK 4 interface offers a hierarchical view that expands high-level events into their transactions and packets, plus chronological transaction and packet views, while a device pane summarizes each observed device from its decoded descriptors, including HID report descriptors. Captures are opened and saved as pcap files with the LINKTYPE_USB_2_0 link type, and v0.5.0 added pcapng with custom blocks for non-packet events.

- Type: Tool
- Targets: Protocol
- Category: Protocol analysis tools
- Relationship: Foundation tool
- Sources reviewed: 2026-10-19
- Added to the catalog: 2026-10-31
- Original resource: <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/packetry/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/packetry/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/packetry/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- Release at review: v0.5.0, published 2025-09-30 with a Windows installer and a Linux x86_64 AppImage; the quick-start guide installs it on macOS with Homebrew. The reviewed main commit is 47 commits ahead with interface, dependency and minimum-Rust changes, while Cargo.toml still reports 0.5.0.
- Live capture needs a Cynthion analyzer whose host software is installed and updated with cynthion update; the code also probes iCE40-usbtrace devices, which the documentation does not cover. Viewing existing capture files needs no hardware.
- Source builds need Rust 1.93+ according to the README and Cargo.toml (the quick-start guide still says 1.85.1) and GTK 4 headers discoverable through pkg-config. The documentation warns not to build with --all-features, whose optional features are for debugging and testing and degrade normal use.
- Captures come from the user's own USB devices and buses. The documentation notes that the hierarchical view can show packets out of chronological order. BSD-3-Clause.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/README.md>
2. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/docs/source/what_is_packetry.rst>
3. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/docs/source/quick_start.rst>
4. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/docs/source/user_interface.rst>
5. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/CHANGELOG.md>
6. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/Cargo.toml>
7. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/src/backend/mod.rs#L32-L40>
8. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/blob/5a7f98b77aa00519ecf7e811c9f26c6534966d05/LICENSE>
9. <https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/packetry/releases/tag/v0.5.0>

## More in Protocols

- [Caring Caribou](https://awesomerea.org/resources/caringcaribou/index.md) · Tool
- [protodump](https://awesomerea.org/resources/protodump/index.md) · Tool
- [CAN Commander](https://awesomerea.org/resources/can-commander/index.md) · Tool
- [Automated CAN Payload Reverse Engineering](https://awesomerea.org/resources/can-reverse-engineering/index.md) · Tool
- [Deluder](https://awesomerea.org/resources/deluder/index.md) · Tool
- [PiCCANTE](https://awesomerea.org/resources/piccante/index.md) · Tool

## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.